Brake adjustments and a rack of my own

I can't stop cycling, literally.

After the Critical Mass ride where we had tons of hill action, my brakes were significantly looser.


As the week progressed, the rear brakes became useless, I could squeeze the rear brakes and they were hitting the grip and leaving me unable to stop with the rear brakes alone.



The front brakes weren't much better; this was becoming a safety issue. I'd almost hit a car stopped in front of me at a light at the bottom of a hill because the brakes were shot. Not good.

Rear brakes before tightening

Front brakes before tightening

I was contemplating bringing it in to Thick to have them look at the brakes. That was money I'd rather save for a new bike and time I didn't have, frankly. I checked them myself, the pads weren't so worn down that they needed to be replaced. Maybe I'd just stretched the cables? I watched  a YouTube video on adjusting brakes.



Well, jeez, that looks simple enough!
So, I just tightened the cables myself!

Could this be any easier?

It just took 5 minutes.

After adjusting the cables: much better!

Later, I made a short trip back and forth to the baseball park. The brakes work great now. I also got my first chance to park at MY bike racks.

Butterflies beyond Boggs and all hail the mighty pickle!

Today is the day Mericans like to spend all day grilling meats and then when it gets dark or said Mericans are sufficiently intoxicated, they like to light fire to Chinese-made substandard explosives. Having been injured as a child by aforementioned drunks bearing small missiles, I hate being outdoors on July Fourth as it approaches dusk. I made sure this wasn't going to be a long trip.


I drove to Cecil Park trailhead to get a leg up on Montour and go further beyond Boggs than I had previously.

It's difficult to get a butterfly to pose for you. It requires a bit of patience. Birds are more troublesome though.

Here, THREE butterflies posed for me.

This lovely orange flower is Asclepias tuberosa - Butterfly Milkweed

 

I lunched at Quicksilver

I wonder if these are Service berries.

The weather was perfect.

Campers at Boggs

I turned around at Findlay.

At the Findlay Activity Center, I was inactive. I chose to rest my caboose and to sun myself in the grass.









While I was there I got a call from the Hubby, he wanted to know what type of pickles I wanted while he was at the grocery store. He is awesome. I've learned pickles are mighty good at staving off leg cramps, I believe so much in the magic bullet that is the pickle that I convinced the MS150 Tour planners that the almighty pickle should be avaialble at rest stops. The cyclists loved the pickles.
Before I left this morning, I had a swig of pickle juice, made a pickle and Swiss sandwich for lunch and the man who has my best interests at heart is making sure I'm stocked with pickles. I heart pickles. I haven't had a ferocious bout of leg cramps in quite a long time and I attribute it to pickles.





As I approached Boggs on the return, a woman stopped me to ask where we were. She was unfamiliar with the trail and hadn't been along this part of it. I looked at my phone and told her it was Imperial according to the GPS coordinates. She rode with me from Boggs down to Quicksilver and we talked the whole way, she often rides the North Shore but was reluctant to try the streets. As we descended a steep grade and picked up speed, there were deep washouts of the trail on one side. I was in the lead and instinctively, I pointed to them to let her know a hazard was ahead, especially important for someone not familiar with this end of the trail. When our pace matched again, she said "Thanks for pointing to those ruts, I was wondering what you were doing." I explained that it was a group ride necessity and went on to try and coax her into attending a Flock ride.Very nice to talk with her; I loved her bike, a pink Nikishi Royale.



This interesting bouncy-house thing was set up in a yard for a July 4th party. Color me jealous.

When I left Cecil Park, I noticed a self-serve car wash across the street. I hooked the bike to the rack and took Ruby over to power wash the cassette, rear derailleur and chain. Sooooo many hunks of black crap came out of there. Yes, I'm steering clear of the crank bearings when I power wash the bike. I also hosed out the underside of the fenders where something had been rubbing and making an annoying noise for a while now. Hopefully, it goes away if I hosed out the offending item.

I can see the gears now!

They were caked in black gunk embedded with bits of grass and gravel.

A great day, 29 miles with optimal weather.

Doing good things... on bikes!

The morning was spent on a project Pinky coordinated asking cyclists to help clean up the several hundred pounds of glass, garbage and car parts all over the pedestrian walkways of our West End Bridge. Base is under the bridge, so this was a no-brainer: I'd spent the morning helping sweep glass and then embark on a ride.

Various pictures of the cleanup crew that included, srpit, Stu, Marko, Pistat and Pinky:

Photo pilfered from Stu

Pinky's photo of pounds and pounds of butts.

Pinky's shot of all the bags of waste.

I found some protractors while I worked:

While she was there on the bridge, I was able to give Vannevar's and srpits goody/thank you bags to her as a thank you from our non-profit for their help in taking down our route arrow markers. 


When we were finished about 2.5 hours later, I was ready to get on the bike. I tried my hand at the Gold Way/ Panther Hollow route again and missed my turn at Neville AGAIN. I think I'm concentrating on the horrible potholes there along Centre and I miss the street. Polish Hill is getting easier every time I go up there.

On the way through Schenley, I noticed my handlebar extender was very loose. It was thwacking my hand over every bump. The multi-tool I had wouldn't fit in the space needed to tighten it. I needed a set of allen wrenches. I recently misplaced my set, so I decided to head down to the Waterfront to Lowes (mega-big home-improvement place). I stopped at REI for the water fountain and bathrooms. It was a hot day by now and I was drinking a lot, but still not enough.  I sat, drank and ate fruit and Kind bars for lunch. REI does not carry allen wrench sets, BTW.

At the Waterfront, I decided to stop at the bookstore first and get the 2nd part of a an interesting trilogy of books that is a far cry from literature. I'm nearly finished with the first book. Sometimes fluffy brain candy books are good thing.

I caught my reflection in the windows there and I'm loving my new cycling skirts.

I need a full length mirror at home.

I worked my way down to Lowes and noted that there was no bike parking, in fact I would have been surprised if there were. One bike was already trussed up to a fake display fence. I broke a cardinal rule and looped my cable around a tree. Uck.

Sorry, tree. Can you forgive me?

 I looked everywhere for allen wrenches. It took 3 employees to find them too!

 I fixed my wobbly bar extender and I was back on the road. I was the only cyclist using the road too. The sidewalks were clogged with cyclists of all levels of experience. Everyone gave me plenty of clearance and I felt safer out in the road.  A strong headwind made getting back slow.

I'd forgotten sunscreen and now I have a bit of a burn. A cyclists' 'tan', I think: red knees, red forearms and red nose and chin. Aloe gel slathering time!

26 miles and a 2 hour broom workout, I'm pooped.

Murals in a new light and re-learning a route.

The Pirates have introduced a new set of animated introductions for each player and they incorporate Pittsburgh's murals!




Here's the one they use for Andrew McCutchen:

It's the "The Two Andys" mural on Smithfield Street. Awesome stuff.

I spent Sunday breaking free from the house. Hubby was due to be extra cranky as he had to do a 36 hour fast before an invasive procedure on Monday that I would have to drive him home from. I'll leave that up to the reader's imagination.

Before I rode, I cleaned and re-lubed Ruby's chain, cassette and rear derailleurs with the ParkTool cleaner. I was kicking myself for letting it go so long as I noticed rust and a squeaking noise when I rode last. The rust is gone now and there are no squeaks to be heard.

As I started out, I noticed the Buffleheads were back! I had the good camera too! Only a few of the original 20 remained, but they bobbed about a bit before taking flight for me.

First, I wanted to learn the route from Oakland down to the Eliza Furnace trail on the South Side. Vannevar and S had shown me once before, but I needed to go at it alone to truly learn it. It's a complicated route, some of it is marked and the rest, you're left to fend for yourself. I didn't do too badly. I missed my Neville St turn but eventually got there backtracking via side streets. I wound up heading up Juno St before I realized I'd gone the wrong way and turned around.

I made it!

On the way there I got some shots along Gold Way of the Troll under the Bridge.

Someone gifted him a 40

Then I went to a new favorite restaurant. Amazing Cafe.

Black rice and veggie curry with a Clean Green to wash it down. Nom.

After lunch I headed past the Eagles nest and a plethora of cyclists out on the trail. Wow, it was crowded! I got to the Waterfront and stayed on the roads as suggested.

I needed something to read while waiting for Hubby's procedure tomorrow. I parked at Barnes and Noble's bike rack and headed in for the bathrooms and book heaven.

What should I get? Re-read a classic? Stimulate some brain cells?

Nah. I like the movies better.

Mindless fluff! Yes!

Then I headed back to the South Side and REI for the bathrooms, a rest and a drink. I was sucked in by a pannier I'm hoping will work for baseball game trips. I also got a new bell. The cowbell fell off on my ride today and the bell I was using was barely audible.

It doubles as a tote bag.

I saw all manner of bike on my travels today: a tandem recumbent, a tandem (that I was impressed to see take a tight turn on one of our switchbacks), lots of regular recumbents and even a disabled persons' bike:

On my way back there were more birders checking out the Buffleheads and I stopped to chat with them, we remarked at how gorgeous they were.


No beeps other than a thank you beep when I let someone pass on Gold Way which is a very narrow street. My ongoing saddle and numb fingers issues are grating on my nerves (pun intended). The new gloves helped lessen but not eliminate the numb fingers.
33 miles on a lovely day.